Chris Smith is an associate professor of biology at
Willamette University in
Salem, Oregon
Salem ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County, Oregon, Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river ...
, United States. In 2013 he received a grant for his work studying the relationship between
yucca moths and
yucca trees.
Background
In 2013, Smith received a
National Science Foundation CAREER award of $850,000 for his work studying the co-evolution of yucca trees and their pollinators, yucca moths. He had the distinction of being the university's first faculty member to receive a CAREER award.
With
Emily Drew
Emily may refer to:
* Emily (given name), including a list of people with the name
Music
* "Emily" (1964 song), title song by Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer to the film ''The Americanization of Emily''
* "Emily" (Dave Koz song), a 1990 song ...
, Smith also teaches the interdisciplinary course "Race, Racism, and Human Genetics", which examines how scientific endeavors had been affected by racial outlooks. The course originated from a discussion Smith and Drew had on the topic in 2012.
Study of yucca and joshua trees
Smith has studied the northward migration of yucca and joshua trees, and the possible hybridization of the Eastern and Western varieties, either of which may be related to
climate change.
Challenging views on race
Smith is an advocate for the dismantling of racist pseudoscientific beliefs. On October 8, 2012, he and fellow Willamette associate professor Emily Drew, an anti-racism workshop facilitator, led a discussion on the misrepresentation of race and racial differences, presented at the
Bagdad Theater
The Bagdad Theatre is a movie theater in the Hawthorne District of Portland, Oregon, United States. It originally opened in 1927 and was the site of the gala premiere of ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' in 1975, and of '' My Own Private Id ...
and Pub in
Portland, Oregon.
[''Portland Mercury']
''Modern Science and the Legacy of Scientific Racism'' When: Mon., Oct. 8, 7 p.m. 2012
/ref>
References
External links
Publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Chris
Living people
Willamette University faculty
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American biologists